Helping hand

I have never felt so clueless as I did when my daughter was born. Like millions before me beginning the enormous task of parenthood, I wondered why these tiny creatures didn’t arrive with a manual. As I stared in bewilderment at the first nappy fresh out of the packet, a kind midwife took pity on me. ‘Let me help you’, she said. Eighteen months on, I can now change them with my eyes shut! 

In the book of Isaiah, Israel is described as God’s servant, a people with a monumental assignment. They are to be a light to the nations around them, drawing the whole world to find freedom and redemption in the Lord. It’s a daunting task for a small nation!  Yet for every ‘you shall’ instruction that God gives to Israel in chapter 41, there are twice as many ‘I will’ assurances. The promises of God to strengthen, uphold, save and vindicate his people are summed up in this short phrase: ‘I will help you’.

Ill-equipped as we may feel sometimes for our own life’s tasks, we too can know God with us; kind and capable as a midwife, providing all that we need to live out our calling as God’s people.

Holy God, thank you for your promise to help me and equip me for everything that you ask me to do. I want to take you up on the offer! I can’t do anything on my own, so please come alongside me and strengthen me in your service. Amen.